The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

John McCain’s son to the ‘ignorant racists’ criticizing an Old Navy ad with an interracial couple: ‘Eat it’

May 2, 2016 at 3:33 p.m. EDT

Sen. John McCain’s son, Jack, had a blunt assessment of the people criticizing an Old Navy ad featuring an interracial couple: “Ignorant racists.”

The controversy began when the low-price fashion chain tweeted an ad on Friday featuring a good-looking, adorably dressed couple with their “child.” Dad’s white, and mom’s black.

Predictably, there was nasty backlash on Twitter. And then backlash to the backlash.

Which is where Jack McCain came in. The fifth of the Arizona Republican’s seven children, Jack McCain is a Navy lieutenant and helicopter pilot — and he’s married to a black woman, Air Force Reserve Capt. Renee Swift. “To the people upset about the  ‘Scandal’ of an a picture of a mixed race marriage, eat it,” he tweeted on Monday, along with a picture of the couple in military uniforms.

McCain was only one of many people responding to the ad by posting pictures of their own mixed-race families.

A few minutes later, he tweeted a picture of the pair on their 2013 wedding day. “I hope this one burns too, you ignorant racists,” he wrote.